EU, South Africa leaders meet to deepen ties amid US threats
European Union and South Africa leaders were to hold talks on Thursday on deepening cooperation, at a time when both are grappling with aid and trade threats from the new US administration.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was to meet European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen and the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, in Cape Town in the afternoon.
Among the issues on the table will be "the need for strengthened multilateralism in order to respond to common global challenges", the Council of the European Union said ahead of the talks.
Both sides are grappling with dramatic policy shifts from Washington since the return of US President Donald Trump to the White House this year.
In a deepening EU-US trade row, Washington has imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and aluminium imports from the 27-nation bloc, leading the European Commission to vow to impose countermeasures from April 1.
Trump's government has targeted the South African government, freezing crucial aid and criticising several of its policies.
The United States has also pulled out of a climate funding deal to help developing countries transition to clean energy, one of the main beneficiaries of which is South Africa.
The Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP) would be discussed at the Cape Town summit, a EU official said.
"We already have a very high level of cooperation but we want to go further.
"And this summit is really about taking significant steps further in the direction of closer and more strategic cooperation,” the official said.
"The European Union cannot simply step into the void and compensate for the quite big hole that the United States -- and this administration particularly -- is creating.
"However, we will be taking stock, and we will be discussing with South Africa, as with others, what the issues are and how we can best improve a partnership that is already strong,” the official explained.
South Africa is the EU’s largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 49 billion euros ($53 billion) worth of total trade in goods -- imports and exports -- in 2023.
The EU is South Africa’s top source of foreign direct investment, accounting for 47 percent of the total.
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